Adobe released its 2014 first quarter financial results last week, revealing $1 billion in revenue for the quarter and nearly 2 million Creative Cloud subscribers. Adobe gained 405,000 subscribers in the first quarter alone for a total of 1,844,000 total subscribers and growing.
Adobe’s CFO noted, “In our Creative business, reported revenue from subscriptions exceeded revenue from legacy perpetual licenses for the first time.” Those who previously spelled out doom and gloom for Adobe’s subscription model appear to be proven wrong with Adobe showing no signs of slowing down and no real competitor to Adobe’s suite of creative software for professional users on the horizon.
Adobe continues to sell its full Creative Cloud software suite for $50/mo and the Photoshop Photography Program currently remains available for $9.99/mo through March 31, 2014.
Jack says
Call me a cynic, but I’m wondering how many signed up for CC under protest. I may have to do it some day, but I’ll do it kicking and screaming.
Douglas J. Louden says
While I did succumb to the coercion to subscribe in order to proceed with a project, I am not going to renew come expiration of the current term. I’ve found other venues that solve my need for Photoshop. I didn’t like being held hostage then and I don’t like it now.
I’ll be interested in seeing how high the subscription rates go now that all the hubub seems to be over.
Dan says
It’s not like Adobe gave me any good options. I opted for CC because all the new features were CC only and support for desktop versions looks iffy for the future. I hate the new CC after using it for 1 year vs owning the software. However, it is the only good option I have for now. I love Adobe products though I just hate many aspects of the CC model. It’s a tough sell at $50 but not at $30 (unless you use over 5 products) and I really honestly think they need a read only version that allows me to view and export past projects if I ever stop buying CC. I never had issues with Adobe products before but since CC, I have called support over 5 times, all with issues related to the cloud login. Of course the fact that Adobe let all my information get stolen didn’t help either.
JonesCat says
Honestly? Allow me to extend a great big middle-finger Adobe and the rest of Neo Corporate America. This is nothing but spin from the jerks at the top. With no alternative, what are professionals supposed to do? This isn’t a migration by choice and this isn’t a “subscription surge” because of the features that are offered. Quite the contrary. This is surrender. This is foresight by professions who see the writing on the wall that Adobe couldn’t care less about anything other than vulgar profit. It’s not going to change, so you might as well drink the kool-aid.
And most disgusting out of all of it is that this basically is the new business mantra of today. This is how all corporate businesses seem to operate now. They acquire, merge and swell, thereby squeezing out and eliminating the competition only to become the only option, then they stab the customer/consumer and long-term client in the back and enslave them because they are the only option. Everything from the food and agriculture industry, the media, the banks, technology, and even politics (which is an *industry* now, not public service) and on and on, the idea that economies and tech “advancements” are an open marketplace where the consumer is free to make choices and drive progress is a huge lie/illusion. I hate speaking in an absolute and conspiracist’s sort of tone, but it’s absolutely true, and you have to be blind not to see that this is the case now.
And here we have Adobe and CC. Basically the entire industry relies on them, and they know it, and they know it well and good after years of crushing competition. Now they stab everyone in the back. Ransom. Hijack. Usury. Dictator-style. And it’s all done in the name of what is supposedly good for us, and that “they people LOVE what we are doing! look at the proof!”. Total BS.
So, what’s next? Do they start following the telecommunications and cable companies’ lead, and do things like “introductory rates” of $40 a month, after which your bill gets jacked up to $65? How about odd nickel-and-dime fees here and there for features, patches or services? Stop and think about it. Stop and look at all the other monthly bills you get. I wouldn’t be shocked in the least if this new pricing structure from Adobe is the first of a number of steps in that direction. Mark my words. They will start playing with that model eventually.
I do think it some ways it might have been inevitable. For years there Adobe truly was innovating and creating exciting new features in their products. But now in some instances it seems that they honestly have run out of steam, working some ideas as far as they can be taken, only being able to offer bells and whistles as so-called must-have features (i.e.: how much more thorough can illustrator really get?) In the same way that product managers time and choreograph the release of new features just to get you to buy the next version – dangling the carrot – they’ve hit a wall. They’ve come to a roadblock. Now they have to come up with some idea to keep you coming back to them, and that idea is finally play the crappy card in their hand. They just screwed us. All of us.
I hope Corel or, some Macromedia-ish competitor rises from the shadows to disrupt the Adobe machine. However, the sad thing is that- again- there is a very high likelihood that the challenger’s mantra will be no different that what Adobe is doing.